DUP leader in London for PM meeting
Arlene Foster is taking her political shopping list to No. 10 today as she meets with Theresa May to discuss how the DUP can shore up the Tories.
Last updated 13th Jun 2017
Downtown/Cool FM Political Correspondent Jordan Moates is at Downing Street for the historic meeting.
Arlene Foster is due to meet the Prime Minister on Tuesday to discuss propping up her minority government.
The DUP has been in talks with the Conservatives since the outcome of last week's general election.This will be a bit of a victory lap for Arlene Foster, just days later she is walking in to Downing Street holding all the cards.
Speaking at Stormont yesterday she was upbeat:
"We've had a positive engagement with the Conservative Party. Those discussions continue and I'm looking forward to going over to London to meet with my parliamentary team which thankfully has increased since I last met with my parliamentary team. And we will be meeting with the Prime Minister as well."
In some ways the DUP left the Tories to sweat things out since the weekend and this agreement not being in place probably forms part of the reason why the Queen's Speech at Westminster looks set to be delayed.
Unlike the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010, where the parties agreed on a full legislative agenda with representatives from both in ministerial offices across government, the deal between the Tories and the DUP is more likely to be a so-called "confidence and supply agreement''.
That's where a minority party has an agreement with another party or parties to ensure it wins votes of confidence - generally considered on the Queen's Speech and on the Budget. It can keep a government up and running but still leads to day-to-day instability as each "normal'' vote is held against the backdrop of the governing party being a minority.
The "confidence'' is a reference to backing on votes of no confidence while "supply'' refers to backing on bills required for the Government to receive money to carry out its agenda.
The exact contents of Arlene's "supply list" can't be confirmed until the deal is done and there may be some concessions to the DUP. Mrs Foster has talked about maintaining the strength of the Union, but we don't know the full details of what that will actually entail until the deal is struck.
She's likely to ask for extra money for Health and Education here and the status of the border after Brexit is sure to come up - as is the lowering of Corporation Tax. But its not thought controversial issues like parading and flags will be brought into the confidence and supply arrangement. Movement on security and legacy issues from the Troubles may prove more difficult for Mrs Foster to extract from the Government.
She has outlined her main intention going into Number 10 today:
"We are going into these talks with the national interest at heart. The union is our guiding star. We believe in the union. We believe in national, stable government. And that will be what is at the forefront of our minds going into these talks"
Theresa May will be hoping this confidence and supply arrangement is in place by the end of play today to avoid being regarded even more as a "coalition of chaos